An Early History of Online Casino Site Onlines

Can you recall a time when gambling sites didn't exist? If
so, then I assume you also remember a time when there was no
Internet. Bookmaking is the second oldest profession. Along with
what we all know to be the first, it has been a fixture since
the time affordable computers and reliable online service became
available. So when was that?

Initially, the internet was funded entirely by the United
States government for research, education, and government use;
therefore commercial use was prohibited. The commercial Internet
started as an alternative in November of 1992, but it still
involved many restrictions. It wasn't until May, 1995 that the
government dropped the project entirely. This put it into the
hands of commercial providers such as MSN and AOL ending the
previous restrictions. Thus, the history of gambling sites
begins. In this article, we will offer a brief look at the early
years.

Possible First Casino Site Onlines (1994-1995)

There's some debate whether or notonline gambling sites
existed in 1994 or 1995. There were plenty of free play casino
games back then; however, there are also a number that claim to
have been gambling sites early on. One of these is casino.co.za,
which came about in 1994 to service a small number of South
African players with online casino games. Deposits and
withdrawals were done in cash, so whether real money play ever
took place on this website is debatable.

Gaming Club, a legit gambling site launched in 1996, later
acquired casino.co.za in order to claim their own history as the
first online casino dates back to 1994. Most writers of gambling
history omit such casinos and gimmicks from their coverage.
We've included it as the debate/claim is still there.

Casino Site Onlines Start in 1996

As far as a confirmed first, this title most likely belongs
to Intertops.com. As you will learn in our article on the
history of Intertops, they accepted the first ever online sports
bet on January 17, 1996. The company enjoyed first mover
advantage much of this year for sports. The only other
significant player to enter the market in 1996 was
Australian-licensed centrebet.com. Casinos, on the other hand,
had considerable competition in 1996.

While there were far too many casino
websites launched in 1996 to cover them all, we will mention
the major two. The first was a casino named Gaming Club, powered
by what would soon become Microgaming. The second was
Intercasino, powered by what would soon become Cryptologic.

1996 was a lucky year. Of the six companies mentioned, all
are still in business: the two sportsbooks, two casinos,
MicroGaming, and Cryptologic, which remain casino software
providers. The latter today power a large number of gambling
sites.

1997 Casino Site Onlines

WSEX.com was the most popular gambling site launched in 1997.
The site grew popular because the co-founder, Jay Cohen, went on
to become the first person ever convicted of violating the
United States Federal Wire Act of 1961 for operating a
sportsbook where gambling was legal. He operated from Antigua;
as a US citizen who took bets from US players, he was found
guilty and sentenced to 21 months in prison. He served almost 18
of them before being released in March of 2004.

During his prison stay, there was a huge uproar from the
gambling community that Jay Cohen was wrongly imprisoned; as a
sign of support, WSEX became one of the most popular online
gambling sites. Also after his release, Cohen assisted Antigua
in an ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against
the United States for their violations of fair trade agreements.
However, like the John Mellencamp song says, unfortunately
authority always wins. WSEX was once among the most trusted
gambling websites in the business. More than a decade after
their launch, they began feeling the financial effects of the US
legal hassle and fund seizures. Eventually, backed in a corner
and in tons of debt they turned rogue. This is for sure one
sportsbook to avoid these days, because they are years late on payout
requests.

1997 was, however, not a complete bust in the history of
gambling sites. Another company that launched was a software
provider called Cyberoad. Years earlier, a computer programmer
named Calvin Ayre, read an article about bookmaker, Ron Sacco,
and decided that the gambling industry was what he wanted to
pursue. He had been working on casino software since 1994, and
with big competitors the likes of Microgaming and Cryptologic
already live, he was in a hurry to get online.

He ended up finding investors for Cyberoad, which completed
their software in 1997. Starting early in 1998 they powered gambling sites
Grand Prix, Big Book, and Mayan Sports. This company failed and
investors lost, but somehow Calvin Ayre acquired the software
free and clear. Years later, this was converted into the now
popular gambling site,
Bodog,
which you can read about in our article covering Bovada.lv
history.

1998 Casino Site Onlines

On January 1, 1998, a $3/$6 fixed limit hold'em game was
played on PlanetPoker.com marking the birth of real money online
poker. First moved advantage was, however, harmed when a faulty
Random Number Generator (RNG) allowed computer experts to easily
predict opponents' hole cards and what the turn and river would
be. With this information exposed, even with future endorsements
from Mike Caro and Roy Cooke, this poker site never picked up
much steam. All the poker sites launched in the 1990's are now
either on a network, closed, or don't accept real money players.
These sites more or less paved the way for poker rooms like
PartyPoker and PokerStars.com, launched after the millennium.
What's interesting is that the 5% rake with a $3.00 cap invented
by Planet Poker is still the industry standard today.

Quite interesting is that many of the UK bookmakers showed no
signs of interest in embracing the Internet during 1998. As our
history of Ladbrokes mentions, they waited all the way until
2000 to come online. The only UK brick and mortar to embrace the
Internet in the 1990's is found in our article on William Hill
history. UK companies started gambling sites in 1998, the first
of which was called BetOnline: now known as BlueSquare. It's
important not confuse their history with the history of
BetOnline.com. The latter is a US betting site from a more
modern era while the former was a UK betting site from 1998.

Outside of poker, 1998 was mostly a year that saw the
US facing
online betting sites that were popping up like wildflower.
Many of these sports betting sites would take the bets, while
local agents collected and paid in cash. Many that launched used
Western Union for post up. One of the most famous was Diamond
Sports International (DSI), later acquired by Bookmaker/BetCRIS.
Several others are covered in our history of justbet.cx, websites
owned by the credit division of Tradewinds. (As there were
literally dozens of others, they cannot all be covered.) The
history of sportsbook.com is a must read. These guys were among
the first to accept credit card deposits, a move most other
sports gambling sites would follow in 1999.

Future Years

This article is intended to give insight into the origin of
gambling sites. We also suggest reading our history of
bet365.com (2001) to learn how the company's later recreational
betting sites came to be. But if you have time to read only two
articles, make it ours on Betfair history and Pinnacle Sports
history. These two sites, launched in 2000, would go on to
revolutionize the way the entire sports betting market works.

While perhaps in the future we will write about the poker boom
of 2003, this is skipping too far ahead right now. If you've
stopped and thought about how you can't remember a day when
there were no betting sites, you also probably don't remember a
day when there was no Internet. The two have gone hand in hand:
for as long as there's been an Internet, there's also been
Internet gambling. (More to come in future articles.) Take some
time to read the articles linked and enjoy the great history of
our niche.